


Elfyface

by AParticularlyLargeBear



Series: A Particularly Modern Thedas [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Meet-Cute, Modern Thedas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AParticularlyLargeBear/pseuds/AParticularlyLargeBear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sera's stuck waiting for a bus with some random dalish. She gives it like five more minutes before said elf starts rambling about ancient history, because that's what they always do, yeah?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elfyface

Rain drummed down upon the flimsy plastic roof covering the bus stop. Water flowed along the edge of the curb, streaming down the street like a miniature river. Lampposts struggled to illuminate the road, ailing against the dark clouds overhead.

Sera, hands buried deep in the pockets of her jacket, slouched against the cold metal perch that was lying about being a seat. Water dripped from her hair and trickled down her face, absolutely sodden from the downpour. She hadn’t made it to the shelter from work before it started pissing it down, and umbrellas weren’t a thing she usually bothered carrying around. Her co-worker Dorian had suggested she take one of the ones they had laying around the store and bring it back tomorrow, but she’d brushed him off. Really, she didn’t mind the rain anyway, not even when she got soaked. Just water, right?

Actually, what had her ticked off was that her frigging bus was late. Not just ‘a couple minutes past the hour’ late either. Like, absolutely where the shit was the actual bus, late. Sera had things to do today, and there was leftover spaghetti in the fridge calling her name. The bus service in this town was usually average-to-shite, but it was due something like half an hour ago _and_ she’d been at the stop early, so she knew she hadn’t missed it.

Taking. The. Piss.

Sera had actually wondered, briefly, if there was some kind of holiday or workers’ dispute or something that she wasn’t aware of, but she’d taken the bus in the morning into work with no trouble. And y’know, the idea of there being a strike _without_ Sera knowing was just stupid. She always knew when there was a strike. Besides, somebody else was here at the stop too.

So, uh, if Sera was wrong (which she wasn’t) then she was wrong _with_ someone else.

Although her company did form part of the reason that she was so irritated. Chiefly, this was because they wouldn’t frigging shut up, having spent pretty much the entire time muttering under their breath and occasionally growling with frustration. If Sera _was_ alone, then at least she would have been able to just close her eyes and enjoy the noise of the rainfall. Take what you can get, right?

Unfortunately this woman – Sera was ninety percent sure it was a woman – was making that bloody impossible. Each and every time the complaining died off and Sera started to incline an ear towards the pattering from above, her unwelcome companion would kick off again.

Sera, frankly, was almost to the point of turning around and telling her to stick a frigging sock in it.

“Fenedhis!”

Also, the woman was an elf. One of _those_ kinds of elves.

Sera turned her head to snap off a remark to the effect of ‘andraste’s tits shut it’, but was startled to see the woman already looking at her. Although her face was in partial shadow from the raised hood of her top, it wasn’t quite enough to obscure the blue lines inked into the deep tan skin. Urrrrrgh. Frigging dalish. Always so smug and up themselves because they didn’t have houses or wear shoes and that somehow made them better than other elves. And with those stupid tattoos, too. The woman had a perfectly nice looking face without drawing all over it.

“Hey there,” said the dalish. Her voice was soft and carried a particularly thick brogue.

“Hey,” Sera replied flatly, hoping she’d get the hint and not start a conversation.

“Do you have a phone I could borrow a second?” she raised a battered looking mobile, showing a blank screen. “Mine just died on me.”

Sera’s first instinct was to say ‘no’, mostly out of spite. On the other hand, she did hate to turn down a good-looking woman, even a dalish, and it wasn’t as if she’d pull a runner with Sera’s phone when it was pissing rain.

“Why’d you need it?” Sera asked instead.

“Been trying to get hold of a friend. We’re supposed to be hanging out but I’m running pretty ridiculously late now and he isn’t answering his phone. Was gonna call his roommate instead.”

“Right,” Sera shrugged. “Okay, sure,” she produced her phone from her pocket, unlocked the touch screen, and then handed it over. The woman’s hand was rough, but warm.

“Thanks,” she smiled, showing off a pair of prominent bucked teeth, and then glanced down at the phone before grinning a little wider. “Cute picture.”

Sera blinked, feeling her cheeks begin to heat up a little. Her phone wallpaper was a selfie she’d taken whilst hanging upside down from a balcony in Orlais.

It was a long story. …Well, no, actually not a very long story, just a pretty silly one.

“Yeah, whatever,” she muttered. “Just do what you need to, yeah?”

The woman’s smile faded and she nodded, fiddling with the screen, telltale beeps indicating she was punching in a number. A moment later, she raised Sera’s phone to her head, tugging back her hood to put the handset to a very pointed ear. Her hair was short, brown, and a little fluffy.

“Stitches?” a pause. “Oh, hey Grim. Is Stitches there?” she tilted her head to the side. “Was that a ‘yes’ kind of grunt or a ‘no’ kind of grunt?” the elf rolled her eyes, and then brightened. “Hi Stitches! Why the hells are you letting Grim get the phone for you anyway?”

Sera tried and failed not to listen in. She knew both of those names, or well, nicknames. Not amazingly so, kind of a ‘friend of a friend’ type deal, but enough that they rang a bell. She didn’t seriously know some of the same people as this _elfybits?_ Ergh, frigging small world shite. Usually dalish didn’t bother her quite this much – and true this particular elf hadn’t done anything especially… elfy just yet, but Sera was in a bad mood already, and with the dalish, it always seemed to be a matter of when, not if. Soon enough she’d start banging on about gods and creators and how ‘their people’ had forgotten their history, as if Sera should care about having her head up thousands of years ago.

“Well, can you let Krem know that I’m running late?” – and there was a name that Sera was familiar with, and she didn’t think it was common enough for there to be two. Piss. The elf continued. “Yeah the bus never showed, and Krem never answers his Creators-damned phone.”

Krem Aclassi. Good guy; Tevene originally, although he’d been over here for quite a while. He liked to hang out in the shop and exchange snipes with Dorian about their homeland. And apparently friends with this chick.

“Huh, an accident? Shit, that sucks. Didn’t hear anything about it at work,” she made a face. “But they cancelled the bus service? _Fenedhis!_ ”

Cause y’know, you couldn’t just swear like a normal person, you had to do it in elf to prove you knew how.

“Yeeeah. I’m kind of stranded now. I’d totally just run there if the rain wasn’t so bad; don’t want to fall and wreck an ankle or something,” a pause, and then another smile. “You’d do that? Shit. I owe you, Stitches, seriously.”

She hesitated, casting a glance Sera’s way. “But uh, hey, do you think you could give someone else a ride, too? I’m calling on somebody else’s phone and she’s probably just as screwed as me right now. …And yes, that’s two favours,” she beamed. “You’re a prince, Stitches. Thanks. I’m at the stop near the old market a block down from the gym. See you soon,” she hung up, and then smiled back to Sera, returning the mobile. “There’s a lift, if you want it. Consider it a thank you for lending me your phone.”

The wind was pretty much taken out of Sera’s sails. She’d latched onto Stitches making an offer for a pickup, figured that she could ask when he showed up. She wasn’t expecting her companion to ask on her behalf – as far as she was concerned, Sera was a stranger. She didn’t have any way of knowing that they had mutual friends, and Sera was certain that Stitches’ number hadn’t been in her phone already.

“That’d be… good actually. Ta,” she gave the woman a sidelong look. “You know Krem, huh?”

The elf blinked, and then broke into another toothy grin. “We work in the same gym. Would’ve headed home with him tonight, but he finished up early and I finished late. Means he didn’t get stuck out here like me, the lucky bastard,” her eyes lit up curiously. They were bright green. “So what about you? How’d you know him?”

Sera shrugged. “I meet people,” which was true. Vague, yeah, but true.

She laughed. “Fair enough. I’m Irala.”

Nice name. Sera wasn’t certain if it was just her accent, which was surprisingly pleasant to the ear. Usually Sera found the dalish brogue annoying. Maybe because of what was being said rather than the accent itself.

“Sera.”

Irala raised a hand and then waggled her fingers in a tiny wave. Sera snorted.

“Say… you should come to Krem’s place, too. We were planning on having a cook-off, and there’ll be way too much food even if the roomies are in.”

Sera made a noncommittal noise. It was tempting; Krem was fun to hang out with, and a pretty good cook. Sure, there was spaghetti at home, and she still had a couple things she needed to get out of the way, but nothing that couldn’t wait a little longer. He probably wouldn’t mind the gatecrash, either. On the other hand, she’d also be hanging around with Irala, and jury was still out on her. She wasn’t the worst elf Sera had ever met.

Irala appeared to take Sera’s lack of enthusiasm as a no. “Don’t blame you. I suck at cooking,” she flashed a wink.

Fuck. Shit. She wasn’t the worst elf, but she might have been one of the cutest.

“I dunno,” said Sera. “I might, maybe. Haven’t seen Krem for a bit.”

“Great!” Irala chirped, and then abruptly blushed, averting her eyes and sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “A-anyway, uh… you know where I work. How about you?” she didn’t make eye contact again. What was she so embarrassed about?

“Charity shop. Red Jenny’s,” Sera took the opportunity to look the other elf up and down. Working at a gym was a little vague; it could mean she was on the front desk, for all Sera knew. On the other hand, she was pretty well built. Probably was almost as crazy about working out as Krem.

“Oh, I’ve been past there,” said Irala. “Never went in, though.”

“It’s all right. Goes to real people, y’know?”

Irala looked back over, frowning slightly. “As opposed to… fake people?”

Sera shook her head. “No I mean like, people, people. The ones that are around us instead of halfway across the world or some shite. There’s people need help who’re right on our doorstep and nobody ever thinks about them ‘cept Jenny.”

“Huh…” Irala trailed off, and then slowly nodded. “Yeah. I can see that. It’s cool. Kinda wish my clan would see things that way now and then.”

Urgh. There she went. Here came the dalish spiel. “More folks should.”

Another nod. “Yeah… anyway, you don’t want to hear me rant. I love my clan like crazy, but gods they can _drive_ me crazy too.”

… 

Well, colour Sera absolutely frigging stunned. Did she seriously just see a dalish actually _avoid_ talking about how amazingly _elf_ she was?

Shite... Sera found herself starting, for the first time in a while, to smile. Maybe Elfyface over here wasn’t so bad after all.

By the time Stitches showed up in his car, Sera had decided that she’d accept the invitation to come along after all.

And when, at the end of the night, she found a number she didn’t recognise in her phone under ‘Irala’, she wasn’t even mad.


End file.
